Road Cycling - Bike rental in NYC

hi anyone in NYC - I am coming from Portland, Oregon on March 22 for a week. Is there somewhere to rent a bike that is recommendable? I will be staying on the upper east side near 70th and 1st. Being my first time in the city, is it a good place to rent a bike to see the sites?

What's the weather like right now?

Thanks for any comments!

Here is a list of recommended bike shops in NYC:
http://transalt.org/info/bikeshop.html
I would call ahead to reserve a bike and find out if they also supply locks... you will need them!
The bike shop can also provide you with a cycling map of the city.

You definately want to bike across the brooklyn bridge, bike at night in time square, do laps in central park and check out the west side bikepath, from battery park all the way north to the cloisters...
There is also a critical mass bike ride the last friday of every month... if you are there, I would not miss it...
http://www.times-up.org/cm.php

The weather here varies greatly each day... but it remains bikeable (personal preferences...).

for NYC Critical Mass - what is the atmosphere like? The cops are pretty brutal here at our CM and I pretty much stopped going. It seemed they were being such a-holes by picking on people, at times throwing them to the ground and handcuffing them (really!).

In the few times that I attended the NYC Critical Mass (very recent), I personally haven't seen any cases of police brutality. The cops pretty much seem to leave the mass alone.

Weather has been tough, but I am sure no worse than Portland.

You are staying in a pretty nice area. And pretty close to Central Park which, as mentioned above, is a great place to ride. Pretty crowded with runners, walkers, and others. But the big loop around the park (6 miles??) is fun, fast, and filled with people to either ride with, catch, or stay away from. Enjoy.

And, like NYC... said, don't miss riding across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Hi, I hope this isn't seen as commercial solicitation or anything, as I think this is very relevant to the question asked by pdx_gay_guy, but my I just wanted to suggest as a possibility the service that my friend Joel runs, where they give guided professional tours of NYC all by bike (as I understand it, they also include the bike if you need one).
I have been on some of the tours, aand I must say that they are excellent.
You can check out all the details at Joel's website, http://www.bikethebigapple.com

And I think all the contact info is on that site.

Again, please accept my apology if this is considered commercial solicitation, which I do not intend this to be. Just trying to help out.

Perhaps you can get a job as a bicycle courier? Then you wouldn't need to rent.